Not everyone is sold on Fernando Mendoza, who is likely to be drafted with the first-overall pick by the Raiders, but one media personality who has bought into the Indiana quarterback is Pat McAfee.
“I’m telling you, this is a generational guy. He’s generational. That is how I’m describing Fernando Mendoza,” the former punter said on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday.
“Not just because of the way the ball comes out and the way he’s built, 6’5, 230. I mean that is exactly what you want. He can run it… but in between the ears, he is a Sunday guy. No questions asked. Plus, he’s having beers with the boys. It’s like everything you want, basically, in an NFL quarterback from what we’ve learned about Fernando Mendoza. I don’t know how many of these guys just pop up.”
“Fernando is dissecting defenses. We talk about all these quarterbacks in their second chapter, later in their careers. Why are all these guys doing so well? It’s because they can break down defenses better than all these younger guys because they have been doing offenses their entire careers… these guys with experiences that have been there and done that and know what’s happening, they can make the best selection for each play. It feels like Fernando is already at that. It feels like he is already at the second chapter where he knows what you’re doing.”
There are still more than three months remaining until the draft, but it’s hard to imagine Tom Brady is going to be talked out of taking a quarterback like Mendoza.
Mendoza has some of the same limitations as Brady did as a player, but they also share a lot of strengths.
As McAfee pointed out, Mendoza is already well ahead of his peers from a mental standpoint, and there haven’t been many noticeable flaws to Mendoza’s game in the last few months.
Several early mock drafts, including the latest from Todd McShay, have sent Oregon’s Dante Moore to the Raiders with the first pick, but look for that sentiment to change as the draft inches closer.
As for Mendoza’s aforementioned critics, one of those this week was sports and pop culture host Bomani Jones, who said Mendoza doesn’t look like a first-overall pick.
“I got people asking me [about] Fernando Mendoza. Is he what the Raiders need and I watched Mendoza. We’ll talk a little bit more about that game, and Mendoza looks like something I’ve seen very many times, which is a very good college quarterback,” Jones said on The Right Time with Bomani Jones.
“I know what the no. 1 pick in the draft look like. That ain’t it. Even if you think Cam Ward’s not going to be that guy, you look at Cam Ward with the Titans and you’re like ‘That guy was the no. 1 pick in the draft.’ You see that.”
“Mendoza. Eww. I don’t know.”
Jones is certainly not an authority when it comes to quarterback evaluations, but for the sake of record keeping, it’s always good to hold on to a hot take for future reference.
x: @raidersbeat
Car mogul and car dealer Cal Worthington was generational.
Love “F.M.” for real, say it loud in stereo! He wears Tom Flores’ number and exactly like Jim Plunkett before him he won the Rose Bowl and the Heisman trophy.
“FM” is a winner and has IT, and so what is it? It is he is just a winner with all the intangibles, he simply elevates everyone around him as a leader and wins. Jim Plunkett was like this and he also won the California State High School Championship in 1967 and is the only QB I know who won two Super-bowls whois not in the Hall of fame? Jim was a winner at every level at the highest of levels. This is and will be FM!
What other team has had three Latino QB’s? It is a beautiful thing and the Raiders have always been a desegregated team with a good mix of players. Yes, we want our Silver and our Black together because a good mix of players is a good healthy thing and has always been the make up of what Championship teams look like.
Viva Fernando Mendoza our Cuban brother and Go Raiders!
West Side
RN
Since 1974
Love “F.M.” for real, say it loud in stereo! He wears Tom Flores’ number and exactly like Jim Plunkett before him he won the Rose Bowl and the Heisman trophy.
“FM” is a winner and has IT, and so what is it? It is he is just a winner with all the intangibles, he simply elevates everyone around him as a leader and wins. Jim Plunkett was like this and he also won the California State High School Championship in 1967 and is the only QB I know who won two Super-bowls who is not in the Hall of fame? Jim was a winner at every level at the highest of levels and this is and will be FM!
What other team has had three Latino QB’s? It is a beautiful thing and the Raiders have always been a desegregated team with a good mix of players. Yes, we want our Silver and our Black together because a good mix of players is a good healthy thing and has always been the make up of what Championship teams look like.
Viva Fernando Mendoza our Cuban brother and Go Raiders!
West Side
RN
Since 1974